Hi! This is my first debate ever, haven't really had much experience, but I'll try give a convincing debate.

Thesedays, many people enjoy beauty pageants, and find them very entertaining. Why should people ban beauty pageants? They allow women to let people acknowledge their beauty, and share it with the world. People who are talented at, for example, sports, participate as much as they can, and become thrilled if they enter and competiotion and get into the finals. So why can't people who would love to show off their talent of being beautiful do so?

//They allow women to let people acknowledge their beauty, and share it with the world.//

The point is, why? Why should they acknowledge their beauty, being beautiful is not an accomplishment, in fact, it breeds vanity and low self esteem. More on this afterwards.

ARGUMENTS:

1. Limits the idea of beauty
The first and the most negative projection of a beauty pageant is that it limits the idea of beauty. Are only 5 ft 6" models beautiful. Is it necessary to be borderline skinny to be beautiful? Isn't Oprah beautiful, in her own way?

This directly has very negative effect on the teens/ pre teens since their already low self esteem lowers further if they do not match upto the societal standards of beauty.

In fact, in a research done in Kenya [2], the Kenyan women showed a distinctly low self esteem when exposed to the idealized version of beauty in America, and ‘…Such an exaggerated concern for physical presentation in not only an unnecessary distraction from more productive uses of women's resources, but also potentially damaging to women's physical and mental health due to dieting, potential eating disorders, and most of all general body dissatisfaction…'. This was a study in Kenya, where people had much much more important things to worry about than their health. They don't have sufficient FOOD, so the same exposure to a pre teen has understandable results.

2. Breeds vanity

Now back to your point. Is being beautiful an accomplishment? Is it a ‘talent'? Sports teach the value of team work/ determination/ agility/ keeping the eyes on the goal/ how to ‘work the mind'/ and many other abilities depending on the game. What does beauty pageant teach? How to hone your beauty? How to apply eye mascara and eye shadow in a way to ‘expand your eyes', or ‘make them appear big'? How to apply blush in the manner that your cheekbones are highlighted? It causes a person to be excessively compulsive about his/ her beauty, which is not normal.
It can lead to various problems too. Aneorxia, low self confidence, suicidal tendencies among many.

3. The whole concept is stupid

It takes away the ‘human' aspect from the humans. Basically., the people come to a stage, wearing their best outfits, and they are compared and the best one is prized. Not very different from the view of a horse being bought by a horseman.

There is no moral, no ‘usefulness'. No quality that can be taken away. Why ? What is the purpose of this all?

Reasons for voting decision: The reason they should not be banned is that people are free to do as they please so long as they are not harming others. Any contest appeals to the vanity of the winner, even debates. Con forfeited without arguing, so cannot win, of course.